We're checking out all the newest pilots this season! Read our write-ups on other Fall 2014 offerings like...
- TERRA FORMARS *** TRIBE COOL CREW *** KAREN SENKI *** WORLD TRIGGER
- PSYCHO-PASS 2 *** WHEN SUPERNATURAL BATTLES BECOME COMMONPLACE
- YOU LIE IN APRIL *** PARASYTE
Without having had a chance to look too far into this, I’ll just go ahead and guess that MYSTERIOUS JOKER here is based on a strip from the 80’s or 70’s. The feel is just too perfectly retro for it to just be a pastiche. (No contemporary character designer's getting away with a J-shaped lapel on Joker’s jacket, I don't think).
== TEASER ==
This very specifically reminds me of the era when American cartoons were often animated by Japanese studios like Toei. Even more specifically, it makes me think of INSPECTOR GADGET, which always felt like an American dub of an anime. Heck, Joker’s cape full of impossible gimmicks might as well be an over-sized trench coat packed with gogo-gadgets…
So, suffice it to say, this put a big, goofy smile on my face. It’s cute, it’s clever and, for once, the art style cleans up the crunchy fuzziness of 80’s anime without losing the charm. It’s a throwback and, boy, is it a welcome throwback: delightfully balancing superheroics and mischief without that looming threat of lore which hangs over almost shonen these days.
I don’t know if there’s much more to pick apart here. Could I speculate upon the true identity of Joker’s Racer-X-like doppleganger/rival? Might I muse about Joker’s habit of announcing his crimes ahead of time, and how that clearly makes him a heroic inverse of the BATMAN villain? Maybe I should analyze the pacing of the show, and how it wonderfully skips by any unnecessary infodump to get us right into the caper?
No, that’d be over-thinking things. Just… just watch this show? It’s a rollicking good time.
Watch this pilot, and decide for yourself.
from Anime Vice Site Mashup http://ift.tt/1wNhDl0
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